RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

‘All I want to do is to go out there and scream and shout at the world. You want to fight against something to make things right. But your head says that is not the way to go about it, that is not going to change anything. That would be reciprocating, fuelling a circle of terrible violence. It wouldn’t make things any better.’

Reeva Steenkamp and brother Adam with Stepmum June - he condemned the athlete's courtroom histrionics as 'grotesque pantomime'

He described talking to his father about Pistorius, and said how it was strange that they were not angry or full of hate. ‘You try not to be too angry because that seems the wrong thing to do,’ he said. ‘We are looking for the positives and what can come out of this and make things better instead of worse.

‘This case in a very strange way has opened a window into people’s lives in South Africa, the way they feel they need to defend themselves with extreme force. People need to think about this.’

He said if he could see or speak to Pistorius, he would ask: ‘What happened? How on earth could you have such a failing, and a capacity to do something like this?

‘There can only be two reasons: absolute intent or a bad mistake. It is very hard to speak your mind when there is a judge up there – and the judge is there for a reason.

‘I wouldn’t argue that the law hasn’t been applied but maybe the law is out of touch with reality, especially in that country.’

Adam said he was sure that Pistorius was a broken man. He felt that he had come across as a terrible witness, caring more about his own circumstances and self-preservation.

‘The world was watching,’ he said. ‘We were not fooled. The man was scared and that is understandable. I am sure what was on his mind was that he was going away for the most useful years of his life.’

But he said it was almost impossible to stomach the ‘grotesque pantomime’ of Pistorius’s actions in court. ‘When I saw him vomiting and crying I just thought, “Man up. Man up.”

‘Our tears are a lot more real, they are heavier. Crying about his lot wasn’t going to change anything. He is a man and it was time for him to stand up and take it on the chin. It was disappointing to see him not do that. It looked like he was acting.

‘The very least one could accept is the verdict of culpable homicide. It would have been crazy if he had walked free having killed someone.’

Oscar Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide after the judge found he killed his girlfriend by mistake

Adam described the terrible loss of his sister. ‘She was absolutely lovely,’ he said. ‘We had a wonderful connection and missed each other incredibly in the times between seeing each other.’

He said his two young children had been looking forward to seeing Reeva last year when she planned a trip to England.

‘She used to go to the shops and buy little bits for them as their auntie. Reeva wanted to strengthen the link between us and she’d send the kids presents with loving letters.

‘She bought some little Wellington boots and wrote a note saying “just like you and I used to wear when we were little”.

‘Reeva and I grew up on the farm and we used to run around together in our shorts and gumboots. I can see her thinking the same about my little boy.’

Adam said he last spoke to his sister a few months before she was killed, and they regularly exchanged texts and emails.

‘We were desperate to meet up and for her to meet the kids for the first time.

‘We also tried to help sort out my Dad with Skype so he could be introduced to the world of video messaging. We were trying to work things out, to bring our family closer together.’

Adam said he admired the way Reeva was on the cusp of doing a lot of things, making a difference to her world. ‘She was a very clever woman and had her head screwed on. She was always the calm settler in the family, the one who would always listen and understand.

‘She did her law degree and she had a life plan there and also had a bit of fun modelling.

‘The opportunities presented to her opened her eyes as to how she could bring about changes and contribute to society.

‘It is very sad because all her family can see how she would have brought people together.

‘Her persona in the media gave her a voice and, when you match that with her sharp brain, she would have been a force for good. We have all lost something.’

Brother Adam said: ‘We had a wonderful connection and missed each other incredibly in the times between seeing each other'

Adam said he had spoken to his father, Barry, on Friday after the verdict. ‘He was still in Pretoria surrounded by friends and family. I asked him how he was and he just said, “I’m OK”.

‘He is such a strong man, he can hold up. But it has broken quite a large part of his heart.’

Adam recalled being asked to take Reeva’s ashes and scatter them into the Indian Ocean after the funeral.

Becoming tearful, he said: ‘It was very humbling. I didn’t ask to. It was given to me to do and in a way I felt I was supporting my dad and June [his father’s second wife and Reeva’s mother].

‘They were so distraught and I was very touched and quietly supporting them. When I scattered the ashes into the sea I was thinking, “See you again, Reeva.” ’

Adam’s parents divorced when he was three and he moved to England in his teens. He has been in close touch with his father and June in the past 18 months and watched them suffer over their daughter’s death.

His father had a stroke and has visibly aged since Reeva’s killing, said Adam.

Yesterday there was a groundswell of outrage at the lenient verdict announced in court.

Many people have taken to social media to encourage June and Barry Steenkamp to sue for damages in a wrongful death claim in a civil court in an echo of the legal action which followed the acquittal of American athlete O.J. Simpson nearly 20 years ago.

The victim's parents, June and Barry Steenkamp, condemned the verdict, saying it was 'not justice for Reeva'

DESPAIR OF REEVA'S EX-LOVER

Reeva Steenkamp’s ex-boyfriend has spoken of the pain he still feels over her loss – and how he had hoped they might one day be reunited.

Warren Lahoud, 28, dated Reeva for nearly five years and lives with the anguish that she would still be alive if they had stayed together.

He said: ‘Reeva had been everything I wanted in a woman. We loved each other so much and the dream of what could have been is played over and over in my head.’

A source close to her family told The Mail on Sunday that Reeva, 29 when she died, was also in love with Warren, and would have stayed with him, but she desperately wanted children – and Warren did not.

Reeva moved out of their shared home in Johannesburg six months before she died.

Warren said his grief was increasing: ‘Things are getting worse for me as the shock is wearing off and the reality is hitting me.

‘When I think Reeva is not in the world, it’s still surreal, I can’t believe it. It doesn’t help me to go back and say I shouldn’t have done this or that and regret things.’

He said that he and Reeva had met for coffee just two days before she was killed – and that Pistorius called her twice during the 40-minute meeting.

Reeva’s parents have said they will seek compensation once sentencing is over. They live on a modest smallholding in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth and often relied on Reeva’s generosity to pay their household bills.

Barry’s racehorse training business had failed and he had been reduced to collecting firewood and selling it at the roadside.

They believed that, after her modelling career, Reeva would return to her home city and use her law degree to join a legal firm specialising in human rights, living close to them once again. She was planning to settle down and have children. June Steenkamp told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Reeva was always generous to us financially.

‘In my last conversation with her, on the night of her death, she was on her way to Oscar’s house and we talked about her sending us money to pay our cable television bill. I didn’t want to miss her first appearance on reality TV.’

She had filmed the show Tropika Island of Treasure, which went out, as scheduled, two days after her death and was dedicated to her.

Today the couple are determined to press ahead with their compensation claim – expected to be for £250,000 – and have Adam’s support in doing so.

Despite Pistorius telling the court that he has sold three properties to pay his legal fees, his family has enormous wealth.

His father and three uncles are directors of 120 successful companies involved in mining, tourism and property development, while his own net worth has been put at £5 million.

Barry Steenkamp told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We have no choice but to claim compensation.

‘Not everyone understands why we are doing this and it makes me feel bad when people criticise us for it. We want to leave it to our lawyers to try to reach an out-of-court settlement.’